Safety razor



NOV. 4, 1952 TEST] 2,616,171

SAFETY RAZOR Filed Sept. 14, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 N. TEST] SAFETY RAZOR Nov. 4, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 14, 1946 Nov. 4, 1952 N. TEST! 2,616,171

4 SAFETY RAZOR Filed Sept. 14, 1946 I s Sheets-Sheet s 17 Flg /.//5'A 77A7/P/VEK Patented Nov. 4, 1952 SAFETY RAZOR Nicholas Testi, Boston, Mass, assignor to The Gillette Company, a corporation of Delaware Application September 14, 1946, Serial No. 696,990

12 Claims.

This invention relates to safety razors of the typein which a thin flexible blade is clamped in position for shaving between two bladeclamping members of the razor head, such as a cap and a guard or blade support.

The invention consists in a novel razor of this general type organized and adapted to receive a blade presented endwise between the cap and guard members while the latter are separated only to a limited extent for that purpose. In such razors, the cap and guard members are interconnected to permit limited separation for the presentation of the blade and the razor thus functions for all practical purposes as a onepiece razor, having no loose parts to become lost or misplaced. At the same time it may be so constructed and arranged that when desired it may be disassembled and separated into its component parts for thorough periodic cleaning.

Razors of this type are moreover organized so that blades may be supplied by hand or from a magazine according to the preference of the user.

In one aspect, the present invention consists in improvements upon the rabor of my prior Patent No. 2,361,332, dated October 24, 1944, although it is in no sense limited to that or to any specific razor.

One feature of the present invention consists in the combination of co-operating blade-clamping members one of which has a spring extension or section which is secured to the other and shaped so that it tends to hold the clamping members apart at all times but permits them to be moved into blade-clamping position. This construction is compact, it reduces the number of parts in the razor assembly and eliminates articulated connections between the parts. Moreover, it maintains them at all times in the desired angular relation and obviates the necessity for close tolerances in the fitting of the razor parts. Going more into detail, one of the blade-clamping members may be extended in a spring section which embraces the end of the other member and is readily secured to its outer face. The section is so shaped that when otherwise free of constraint the blade-clamping members are separated by a space permitting convenient presentation of a blade between them.

while at the same time the spring section may be readily distorted when it is desired to force the members into blade-clamping relation.

Another feature of the invention consists in providing one of the blade-clamping members with spring means for frictionally holding in Jill place a blade presented in shaving position, which means act to hold the blade in place preparatory to'blade-clamping operation and preparatory to ejecting a used blade from the razor. The organization of the razor is such that the bladeclamping members may be relatively tilted by deforming the spring-connecting section and the retaining spring thus moved to effect a quick release of the blade which is then free to drop from the razor. In one aspect, therefore, the invention comprises cap and guard members connected through the medium of a yielding section in combination with a blade-retaining "spring constructed and arranged to be moved to blade releasing position by yieldingly tilting or otherwise displacing the cap or guard in a manner permitted by the said yielding section.

Still another feature of the invention consists in a novel construction whereby one of the blade-clamping members is provided with a blade-locating rib of wear-resisting character or of any desired material different from that of the razor head. Preferably and as herein shown, this is effected by forming a forked body of steel or other suitable metal and then swedging the forked arms of the body together and into permanent engagement with the blade-clamping member, thus providing it with a permanent blade-locating rib.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from thefollowing description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a view in perspective of the complete razor on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing parts of the razor in exploded relation;

Fig. 3 is a view in longitudinal section on the plane 3-3 of Fig. 1, but showing the cap and guard separated;

Fig. 4 is a view of the razor head from one end;

Fig. 5 is a view of the razor head from the other end;

Fig. 6 is a view in cross-section on the line 66 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. '7 is a view in longitudinal section showing the parts of the razor in blade-releasing position. I

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the razor head includes an elongated guard or blade-supporting member 10 substantially rectangular in outline, convex in cross-section and having its opposite edges formed as down-turned guard bars 11 which are partially separated from the body of the guard by longitudinal slots. The guard is provided in its lower face with a wide shallow channel I2 and with a centrally disposed threaded hole I3 for the reception of the handle. The guard is channeled in its upper face for about half its length and thus provided with a longitudinal reduced section It having an inwardly inclined shoulder in its under-face. This reduced section is of awidth to receive a rib member which is longitudinally forked and provided with a longitudinal convex rib portion [5 and underlying tang IS. The forked rib member is fitted into the channel forming the reduced section It and then the inner end of the tang is swaged into engagement with the shoulder of the reduced section. Thus the guard is provided with a blade-locating rib which is permanently and accurately secured in place thereon, and may be of steel, whereas the guard itself is usually formed of brass or other allo having less wear-resisting properties. Q

The end of the guard Hi opposite to the rib i5 is embraced by a loop-shape spring having an underlying retaining portion H, an up-turned neck #9 and an inturned blade-engaging-portion 20 which flares upwardly at its inner end and is perforated as shown in Fig. 2. The underlying retaining portion ll of the spring is provided with a hole l8 which, in the assembled razor, registers with the hole l3 of the guard member. inturned portion is also perforated as shown in Fig. 2 to provide spaced blade contacts and is normally biased toward the blade-seat face of the uard.

The handle of the razor includes a tubular head 2| externally threaded to fit the threaded hole l3 of the guard member and provided with a collar 22 which underlies the spring I"! and clamps its inner lower end against the under-face of the guard Ill. The handle includes a tubular barrel 23 in which is telescopically received a spindle 24 threaded at its upper end and depressed-at all times by a compression spring 25 which bears against the lower face of the head 2| and a collar formed in the lower end of the spindle.

The cap member includes a top section 26 which is concave in cross-section and provided in its inner or lower face with a channel 21 to receive the rib l 5. The top section of the cap is provided with an internally threaded boss 28 adapted to receive the threaded end of the spindle 24. The

cap has at one end a neck section 29 which extends downwardly around the left end of the guard 10, as seen in Fig. 3, and is provided with a window 39 through which the looped outer end of the spring ll20, and also the end of the razor blade, project. The neck portion of the cap merges at its lower end into an inturned retaining section or arm of spring material. This retaining section is forked and connected to the guard by screws 32 which pass through the otherwise free end of the spring and into the bottom of the guard. This spring section is normally biased to separate the cap and guard members.

One form of blade 33 adapted for use with the razor above described is shown in dot-and-dash lines in Fig. 2. It is provided with a longitudinal medial slot 34 having local enlargements therein and is shouldered in each corner to define elongated unsharpened end portions 35. These end portions of the blade are of such width as to fill the window 33 in the neck of the cap and thus positively locate the blade at that end of the razor head. The other end of the blade is in the meantime accurately located by the rib l5.

The

In Fig. 3 the spindle 24 is shown as disengaged from the cap member 26 and the latter has therefore been lifted by action of its spring section 3| so as to clear the blade seat of the guard l0. With the razor in this condition, the user may insert a blade 33 as suggested in Fig. 3. Its advancing end will first ride up and over the rib l5 and then the rib I5 will pass into the slot 34 of the blade so that the blade may rest in flat condition upon the blade seatof the guard while positively positioned widthwise by the rib. As the blade is advanced, its end will pass beneath the inner end 28 of the spring and will be frictionally held in place by pressure of the spring upon the blade against the blade seat. When the blade has been thus positioned the spindle 24 may be pushed upwardly against the pressure of the spring 25, its upper end engaged in the threaded boss 28 and the cap drawn into blade-clamping position by rotation of the spindle. In that movement the spring section 3! will be'sprung or bowed downwardly out of the position shown in Fig. 3.

After the razor has'been used, the spindle 24 may be disengaged from the cap 25 whereupon the spring section 3! will lift the cap without disturbing the interior spring H'--2li or the blade held thereby. The latter will still frictionally retain the blade in position on the blade seat. When, now, the user wishes to eject the used blade, he has only to press upwardly upon the thumb surface provided by the spring section 3| of the cap, as suggested in Fig. '7. Clearance for this movement is afiorded by the channel 12in the under face of the guard. The spring is thereupon lifted by the lower edge of the window 3% and from engagement with the blade and thereupon, the blade is then free to slide out from between the now separated blade-clamping memhere.

Having thus disclosed. my invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A safety razor having a pair of co-operating blade-clamping members, one of which has as a permanent part thereof a spring extension shaped to embrace the end of the other member and being fastened to its outer face, the said spring extension by its shape and resiliency tending to hold the clamping members at all times apart while permanently connecting them and permitting them to be forcibly moved into bladeclamping position, and means for so moving saidmembers.

2. A safety razor having a pair of co-operating blade-clamping members, one of which merges at one end into a spring extension which embraces the end of the other and presents forkedends extending across substantially the entire outer face of said other member, means for securing the free ends of the forks to the guard, and means for moving said members together for clamping a blade between them.

3. A safety razor having a blade-supportingmember and a relatively movable cap provided at one end with a spring extension, extending around and as a permanent part thereof beneath the blade-support and being secured to its outer face adjacent to its free end, and means for moving said blade-supporting member and together for clamping a blade between them.

4. A safety razor having a made-supporting member, a handle attached to said member, a relatively movable cap provided with a downturned spring arm extending from one end of the cap, to clear the handle and secured to the blade-supporting member adjacent to its other end, and means for moving said blade-supporting member and cap together for clamping a blade between them.

5. A safety razor having a stationary guard and a relatively movable cap, a spring carried by the guard, extending beyond one end thereof and cooperating with the guard yieldingly to retain a blade thereon, the cap having a downwardly-extending end portion provided with a window through which the retaining spring extends and a spring-connecting section secured to the bottom of the guard, said spring section by its resiliency permitting the cap to be displaced and the blade retaining spring thereby moved into blade-releasing position.

6. A safety razor comprising cap and guard members, the cap having an underlying spring section connected to the bottom face of the guard, in combination with a blade-retaining spring extending in loop form about one end of the guard in position to engage a blade thereon when the cap is displaced by pressure against its underlying spring section.

7. A safety razor comprising cap and guard members, the cap having an end portion with a window and an underlying spring section extending from one end of the cap and connected to the bottom face of the guard, in combination with a blade-retaining spring associated with the guard and extending at its outer end into the window of the end portion of the cap.

8. A safety razor comprising. cap and guard members, the guard having a channel-in its lower face, and the cap having a spring section extending from the cap and being movable freely at one end of the guard within said channel and secured at the other end of the guard, in combination with a blade-retaining spring looped about one end of the guard in position to be engaged and lifted by a part of the cap member when the said spring extension is pressed into the channel of the guard.

9. A safety razor comprising a guard member having a blade seat face, a blade retaining spring held in contact with the guard member and looped over the blade seat and about one end of the guard, and a cap member co-operating with the guard and having with an underlying spring section shaped as a loop about the end of the guard outside the retaining spring and connecting the cap and guard.

10. A safety razor having co-operating cap and guard elements, the guard being centrally perforated and slotted in its inner face from one end to its said perforation and having an inwardly directed shoulder in its outer face, and a longitudinally forked rib-forming element filling the slot of the guard and conformed at its inner end to its said shoulder.

11. A safety razor having cooperating cap and guard members, an exterior spring for urging said members apart, and an interior spring for yieldingly holding a blade upon the surface of the guard member and being overlapped by said exterior spring, a portion of said exterior spring supplying a finger surface whereby the interior spring may be flexed for quick release of a blade.

12. A safety razor having cooperating cap and guard members movable relatively to clamp a blade between them, the cap merging at one end into a spring extension which loops about one end of the guard member and is secured to the guard member near its other end and is normally biased to separate the two members, in combination with a U-shaped spring held in contact with the outer face of the guard, normally biased toward its inner face and being covered in part by said looped spring extension.

NICHOLAS TESTI.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 353,960 Christy May 21, 1907 975,535 Knaster Nov. 15, 1910 1,847,556 Gaisman Mar. 1, 1932 1,919,737 Martin July 25, 1933 2,299,416 Testi Oct. 20, 1942 2,361,332 Testi Oct. 24, 1944 2,397,890 Testi Apr. 7, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 4,335 Great Britain Apr. 23, 1908 

